1. Technical Field
The technology disclosed herein is related to a heat dissipating structure for an imaging unit.
2. Background Information
The amount of heat generated by an imaging element rises as the imaging element becomes larger and as the number of pixels increases. Also, there is a need for still cameras such as digital still cameras to have a moving picture capture function as well, and this leads to more heat being generated by imaging elements.
Also, there is a move toward higher integration and higher driver frequencies in control IC chips and signal processing IC chips for processing and recording high-definition image data or moving picture data. Therefore, heat generation from these IC chips cannot be ignored, either.
As things stand, however, the need for making imaging devices smaller and thinner continues unabated. Therefore, the problem of heat generation with these imaging devices must be solved without making the devices themselves any larger.
In view of this, a variety of heat dissipating structures have been proposed. For example, Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Application S61-128875 discloses a heat dissipating apparatus for a charge-coupled device. Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Application S62-12897 discloses a heat dissipating apparatus for a camera. With these heat dissipating apparatuses, a heat dissipating plate is attached to the rear face of an imaging element. Also, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2006-211091 discloses a heat dissipating structure for an imaging element. With this heat dissipating structure, a heat dissipating plate and a heat dissipating element are connected by a heat dissipating path provided to the heat dissipating plate.
However, because the amount of heat generated by imaging elements is increasing, and because there are heat generation sources other than imaging elements, such as control IC chips and signal processing IC chips, there are situations in which it is difficult to disperse heat efficiently from an imaging element with just a heat dissipating plate attached to the rear face of the imaging element.